New Studies Support Therapeutic Potential of Compugen Discovered Target for Multiple Myeloma Treatment
December 06 2010 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Compugen Ltd. (NASDAQ:CGEN) announced today results from
recently completed studies that further demonstrate the therapeutic
potential of CGEN-928 as a drug target for treatment of multiple
myeloma (MM) through mAb therapy. These new studies were carried
out by the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research (IMBCR)
and are being presented at the 52nd American Society of Hematology
(ASH) now taking place in Orlando, FL.
CGEN-928, a previously uncharacterized protein, was earlier
shown by Compugen to be broadly expressed in multiple myeloma tumor
cells. In addition, these earlier studies demonstrated that
CGEN-928 is uniquely present in advanced disease stages of MM as
well as in drug-resistant and aggressive MM, indicating potential
targeting of the more aggressive disease stages and types,
currently an unmet medical need. Based on the positive results of
these initial studies, Compugen initiated a number of functional
studies at the IMBCR to explore CGEN-928’s involvement in MM tumor
biology.
The recently completed studies demonstrated that a polyclonal
antibody which specifically recognizes CGEN-928, decreases MM tumor
cell proliferation and induces apoptosis, a process in which cells
undergo a programmed cell death. These positive results were seen
in both MM cells from patients and in MM cell lines and indicate
that an antibody specific for CGEN-928 may cause the specific
killing of MM cells. Furthermore, an enhanced decrease in in vitro
MM tumor cell growth was demonstrated when combining the CGEN-928
antibody with each of three existing MM standard of care drugs
(bortezomib, melphalan, and dexamethasone), compared to the drugs
alone. These studies suggest a potential synergistic effect of
combining the targeting of CGEN-928 with standard of care drugs,
thus providing a potentially enhanced clinical response with the
combination therapy. The overall results of the studies done to
date for CGEN-928, both of expression and functionality, strongly
support its continued development as a potential target for
monoclonal antibody based therapy for MM.
Dr. James R. Berenson, a leading multiple myeloma specialist and
the Medical & Scientific Director of The Institute for Myeloma
& Bone Cancer Research in California, where most of this
research was conducted, stated, “The results we obtained with
CGEN-928 in multiple myeloma provide a basis for development of
antibody-based therapy against this target for MM, which shows
promise both as a single therapy as well as a combination therapy
which improves the activity of other antimyeloma drugs. In
addition, this novel target may be a new marker for this common
blood-based malignancy especially for the unmet medical need of
detecting and treating cells that are most aggressive and resistant
to currently available drugs.”
Dr. Zurit Levine, Compugen VP of R&D, stated, “As recently
announced, although Compugen’s core predictive discovery
capabilities are broadly applicable, we currently have oncology and
immunology therapeutics as our main fields of focus. Therefore, we
are extremely pleased to see both the increasing rate of predicted
therapeutic candidates in these fields being added to our
validation pipeline - with more than twenty such molecules being
added in the last few months - and the additional very positive
experimental results from leading experts for our previously
validated molecules, such as being reported here for CGEN-928 and
reported last month for CGEN-15001.”
About Multiple Myeloma
Multiple myeloma is a malignancy of the bone marrow. The tumor
is composed of plasma cells, which are specialized immune cells
that under normal conditions produce antibodies, and therefore are
a key component of a healthy immune system. However, in multiple
myeloma, the plasma cells in the bone marrow become cancerous and
begin to divide without control, destroying normal bone tissue and
often causing severe pain, fractures and skeletal deformities.
Other complications of the disease include anemia, infections and
hypercalcemia, all of which can lead to death. Multiple myeloma is
the second most prevalent blood cancer after non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma. It represents approximately 1% of all cancers and 2% of
all cancer deaths. Although the peak age of onset of multiple
myeloma is 65 to 70 years of age, recent statistics indicate both
increasing incidence and earlier age of onset.
About Compugen’s Monoclonal Antibody Targets Discovery
Platform
Compugen’s Monoclonal Antibody Targets Discovery Platform relies
heavily on Compugen’s LEADS and MED capabilities, two computational
biology infrastructure platforms that serve as core components for
the development of Compugen’s discovery platforms. The LEADS
platform provides a comprehensive view of the human transcriptome,
proteome and peptidome, and serves as a rich infrastructure for the
discovery of novel genes, transcripts and proteins. It includes
extensive gene information and annotation, such as: splice
variants, antisense genes, SNPs, novel genes, RNA editing, etc. At
the protein level, LEADS provides full protein annotation,
including homologies, domain information, subcellular localization,
peptide prediction, and novelty status. The MED Platform is an
integrated database composed of the results from more than 40,000
public and proprietary microarray experiments, normalized and
organized into approximately 1,400 therapeutically relevant
conditions (i.e. normal tissues, malignant tissues, tissues from
drug treated patients, etc.). Utilizing a sophisticated query
interface, the proprietary MED platform allows the simultaneous
examination of the expression of genes and pathways across all
1,400 conditions and tissues as well as all 40,000 microarray
experiments.
In addition to incorporating MED and LEADS, the mAb Targets
Discovery Platform utilizes multiple data sources and algorithms to
predict a large number of novel membrane proteins that can serve as
targets for antibody therapeutics, such as for various cancer and
autoimmune diseases. The selection of appropriate candidates from
this large body of predicted membrane proteins is accomplished
using sub-modules of algorithms and other computational tools
developed specifically for each disease state or protein
family.
About Compugen
Compugen is a leading drug and diagnostic product candidate
discovery company. Unlike traditional high throughput trial and
error experimental based discovery, Compugen’s discovery efforts
are based on in silico (by computer) product candidate prediction
and selection utilizing a broad and continuously growing
infrastructure of proprietary scientific understandings and
predictive platforms, algorithms, machine learning systems and
other computational biology tools to address important unmet
therapeutic and diagnostic needs - either for Compugen or its
partners. Compugen’s growing number of collaborations covering the
further development and commercialization of Compugen discovered
product candidates all provide Compugen with potential milestone
payments and royalties on product sales or other forms of revenue
sharing. These collaborations may be entered into before product
candidate discovery is undertaken pursuant to “discovery on demand”
type arrangements, or with respect to existing product candidates,
collaborations can be initiated prior to or at the proof of concept
stage, or after additional preclinical activities have been
undertaken by Compugen. In 2002, Compugen established an affiliate,
Evogene Ltd. (www.evogene.com) (TASE: EVGN.TA), to utilize certain
of the Company’s in silico predictive discovery capabilities in
agricultural biotechnology. For additional information, please
visit Compugen's corporate website at www.cgen.com.
This press release may contain "forward-looking statements"
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. These statements include words such as “may”, “expects”,
“anticipates”, “believes”, and “intends”, and describe opinions
about future events. These forward-looking statements involve known
and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual
results, performance or achievements of Compugen to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some of
these risks are: changes in relationships with collaborators; the
impact of competitive products and technological changes; risks
relating to the development of new products; and the ability to
implement technological improvements. These and other factors are
identified and more fully explained under the heading "Risk
Factors" in Compugen's annual reports filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission.
Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024